Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women

Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, the only maximum security prison for women in the State of New York.

Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women is a prison in Bedford Hills in the Town of Bedford, Westchester County, New York, USA,^[1] at 247 Harris Road. Bedford Hills, the only New York State Department of Correctional Services women's maximum security prison,^[2] is the largest women's prison in New York state and has hosted many infamous prisoners. The prison previously opened under the name Westfield State Farm in 1901.

Bedford Hills is one of several New York facilities exclusively for women, the others being Albion Correctional Facility, Bayview Correctional Facility, Beacon Correctional Facility, and Taconic Correctional Facility.^[3] Its family-centered program, founded by Sister Elaine Roulet, has served as a model for other prison programs in the United States and is considered the standard for innovative family-centered programs.^[4]

In August of 1974, the prisoners briefly took over parts of the prison in reaction to a prison organizer's assault at the hands of guards.^[5]

In the post-Furman v. Georgia period and prior to the 2008 repeal of the death penalty, this prison was designated as having the state death row for women.^[6]

Notable inmates

• Kathy Boudin,^[2][7] Convicted in 1984 for her involvement in a Brinks robbery that resulted in the killing of three people, and who became a public health expert while in prison. She was sentenced to life in prison and was released on September 17, 2003, after serving 22 years. After her parole she accepted a job in the H.I.V./AIDS Clinic at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center.

• Stacey Castor,^[2][7] Wife who was charged in 2007 with second degree murder, second degree attempted murder, and offering a false instrument in the first degree. She was found guilty of intentionally poisoning then-husband David Castor with antifreeze in 2005 and attempting to murder her daughter, Ashley Wallace. In addition, she was suspected of having murdered her first husband, Michael Wallace, whose grave lies next to David Castor's. After an autopsy was performed on Michael Wallace's body the autopsy showed traces of antifreeze and rat poison that were found in his remains. The medical examiner ruled the death a poisoning homicide.

• Judy Clark,^[7] Convicted in 1983 for her involvement in the same Brinks robbery as Boudin. Was not represented by counsel at trial and is currently serving 3 consecutive life sentences at Bedford Hills. Co-founded the AIDS Counseling and Education (ACE) program at Bedford Hills, which has been emulated in prisons nationwide. Was instrumental in establishing a college program at Bedford Hills that has helped more than 100 prisoners earn college degrees.^[8]

• Amy Fisher,^[2] Famously known as "The Long Island Lolita" by the press, convicted of the 1992 shooting of the wife of her lover Joey Buttafuoco, with whom she began an affair as a 16-year-old student. She had served 7 years in prison and was released from prison in 1999.

• Jean Harris,^[2][7] Murdered her ex-lover Dr. Herman Tarnower, cardiologist and author of the best-selling book The Scarsdale Diet. Eleven years after Harris's conviction,^[9] Governor Mario Cuomo commuted the remainder of her sentence on December 29, 1992, as she was being prepped for quadruple bypass heart surgery. She was released from prison by the parole board after serving 11 years and later moved to the Whitney Center, a retirement home in Hamden, Connecticut.^[10] She died on December 23, 2012, aged 89, at an assisted-living facility in New Haven, Connecticut.

• Barbara Kogan,^[2][7] In October 1990 her husband George was shot on an Upper Eastside Manhattan street. Barbara immediately became a suspect but she was not convicted for nearly two decades after she accepted a plea bargain admitting to conspiring to hire a hit man to kill her husband of 24 years because of a lengthy, acrimonious divorce.^[11][12]

• Nixzaliz Santiago,^[7] Convicted of manslaughter in connection with the death of her daughter, Nixzmary Brown, and sentenced to 43 years in prison. Nixzmary's stepfather Cesar Rodriguez tortured (later learned to be bound and her mouth duct-taped, and beaten) Nixzmary, and her mother allegedly ignored this and didn't contact authorities in time to save her daughter's life.

• Pamela Smart,^[2][7] Former media services consultant found guilty in March 1991 for conspiring with her underage lover, William Flynn, and his three associates to kill her 24-year-old husband, Greggory Smart, in Derry, New Hampshire. She was transferred to Bedford Hills from the New Hampshire State Prison for Women in March 1993 because New Hampshire did not have a secure enough facility to house her, the higher security necessary due to the high-profile nature of her case.^[13] She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility for parole.

• Marybeth Tinning,^[7] Serving 20 years to life in prison for the murder of several of her children. She was denied parole in March 2007 after serving 20 years in prison.

• Carolyn Warmus,^[7][14] Former teacher convicted for the murder of Paul Solomon's wife Betty Jean to get closer with him. Carolyn and Paul were both teachers at the same school and Carolyn frequently visited the Solomon house. Her first trial was a mistrial but a new piece of evidence linked her to the murder and Carolyn was found guilty at her second trial. She faced the minimum of 15 years, but Judge Carey sentenced her to the maximum of 25-years-to-life in prison.

• Joyce Mitchell, assisted in the escape of inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt. Sentenced to 2 and a third to 7 years in prison. Her earliest release date is October 8th 2017, with her maximum release date of June 8th 2022.

• Remy Ma , Rapper Remy Ma got into an altercation with a friend inside a vehicle outside a club when Remy fired 2 shots in the woman's stomach. She later turned herself in and was charged with Attempted Murder and sentenced to 8 years. Remy is currently out on parole, she was released July 31 2014.

References

1. ↑ "Bedford town, Westchester County, New York." U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on September 2, 2010.
2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Silver, Kate. "How Mya Saved Jacob." Spirit Magazine. Retrieved on January 15, 2011.
3. ↑ New York State Department of Corrections Facility Listing. Retrieved on July 8, 2011.
4. ↑ Encyclopedia of American Prisons, by Marilyn D. McShane, Franklin P. Williams
5. ↑ http://newpol.org/content/nor-meekly-serve-her-time-riots-and-resistance-womens-prisons
6. ↑ "Repeal of Death Sentence Regulations (Section 103.45 of 7 NYCRR)" (Archive). New York State Department of Correctional Services. Retrieved on September 2, 2010. "Repeal regulations requiring death sentence warrants to be provided to the Commissioner and persons sentenced to death to be delivered to Clinton and Bedford Hills Correctional Facilities (death row)[...]"
7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 New York State Department of Corrections Inmate Population Information Search. Retrieved on July 8, 2011.
8. ↑ Robbins, Tom (January 12, 2012). "Judith Clark’s Radical Transformation". nytimes.com. The New York Times. Retrieved December 3, 2014. 
9. ↑ The Jean Harris Case, TruTV Crime Library website, accessed November 24, 2008
10. ↑ Berger, Joseph (January 24, 1993). "January 17–23: Former Headmistress Freed; Jean Harris, 69 and Frail, Paroled for 1980 Murder". nytimes.com. The New York Times. Retrieved December 3, 2014. 
11. ↑ DNAInfo.com "Black Widow Barbara Kogan's "Sentencing Delayed So Son Can Finally Face Mom in Court," May 19, 2010
12. ↑ Publisher's book page for The Millionaire's Wife about the Barbara Kogan case
13. ↑ "Woman in Plot to Kill Husband Shifts Prisons". nytimes.com. The New York Times. March 12, 1993. Retrieved December 3, 2014. 
14. ↑ Singleton, Don. "WHATEVER HAPPENED TO. . .? THE ART OF DOING TIME" New York Daily News, Sunday, June 18th 1995. Retrieved July 8, 2011

External links

• New York prison information
• Bedford Hills College Program at Marymount Manhattan College
• The Mothers of Bedford
• Mothers of Bedford Documentary Film
• The Mothers of Bedford at Women Make Movies

New York State Department of Correctional Services prisons Drug Treatment Centers Willard♂♀ Shock Facilities Lakeview♂♀ Moriah Minimum Security Butler Camp Georgetown Camp Pharsalia Edgecombe Lincoln Queensboro Rochester Medium Security Adirondack Albion♀ Altona Bare Hill Cape Vincent Cayuga Collins Fishkill Franklin Gouverneur Gowanda Greene Groveland Hale Creek ASACTC Hudson Livingston Marcy Mid-State Mohawk Ogdensburg Orleans Otisville Riverview Taconic♀ Ulster Wallkill Washington Watertown Woodbourne Wyoming Maximum Security Attica Auburn Bedford Hills♀ Clinton Coxsackie Downstate Eastern Elmira Five Points Great Meadow Green Haven Shawangunk Sing Sing Southport Sullivan Upstate Wende Closed Arthur Kill Bayview♀ Beacon♀ Buffalo Butler ASACTC Camp Gabriels Chateaugay ASACTC Fulton Lyon Mountain Mid-Orange Monterey Mt. McGregor Oneida Summit Above facilities are male-only unless noted by ♀(female) or ♂♀ (unisex)

Coordinates: 41°14′19″N 73°40′51″W / 41.23861°N 73.68083°W / 41.23861; -73.68083